ILIAS PAYNE
---
The objective of this phase was never to answer the questions legitimately—the questions given to us were impossible to answer after all.
Getting caught cheating three times would result in our elimination. But that rule never sat right with me the moment it was explained.
Shouldn’t we be eliminated the moment they caught us cheating? Why were they giving us three opportunities to cheat?
That rule, mixed with the high difficulty of the test, encouraged us to cheat—which was the objective.
This was a mental test.
We had to cheat using jynx without getting caught. Or at least not do so more than three times. Answering the questions legitimately was never the objective.
Roswaal returned from his bathroom break and shot a smug smile at me. He began writing down answers the moment he took his seat.
He’s figured it out and seems to have done something sneaky when he left. And if Zwergin tried to cheat by warging into Chris, then she must’ve figured it out as well.
Now I had to figure out how to copy off of someone else’s paper, which was a little hard as there were fewer people to cheat off from. Our starting number of forty-two had dropped to thirty-three.
Thaddeus was passed out on his desk so I have no hope for him, but I hope Erina has it figured out.
I could simply cast Doom And Gloom to temporarily blind the entire room while I steal someone else’s paper. If I did that, I technically wouldn’t be breaking the rules, but I didn’t want to give anyone ideas. I’d rather heed Asher’s advice and keep information to myself.
With the moves I knew, there were no spells I had for this specific situation. There might’ve been one inside Talking Book, but a puff of smoke and a floating book would attract unsolicited eyes. I couldn’t enhance my eyes or hearing, freeze time, or read people’s minds. But I had to figure out how to cheat before the test ended—which was in twenty minutes.
I stared around the room, my eyes focusing on the ink puddle that had formed on the floor. Its black colour meant I was able to see the reflection of the ceiling.
I got it!
I held out an open palm, positioning it to the ceiling right above me.
“Water Cannon!” I whispered.
Instead of the bombastic spell I was used to, I used additional mana to tone it down. I sent an almost string-like amount of water towards the ceiling. I had the water spread into a large thin puddle on the ceiling before using Freeze Out to turn the puddle into ice.
Once the cold mist hovering under the ice dissipated, I was able to see a clear reflection of myself from the ice. The participant behind me had all of his questions answered and I didn’t waste a second jotting them down. The answers were as followed:
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
1. Pretend you are a blind man alone on an island. You have two red pills and two blue pills. You must take one blue and red pill a day. Failing to do so or consuming more than one of the same coloured pills will cause your death. What do you do to ensure your survival?
A: Break each pill in half and take half of each pill.
2. Flying against a wind speed of forty kilometres an hour, what is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
A: What kind? Northern, eastern, western, or southern?
3. You are an owner of an inn with infinite rooms and only one guest is allowed per room. You have an infinite amount of guests which makes your inn full. An unexpected gleeman shows up in the middle of the night and demands a room. Without turning him away, how do you give the gleeman a room?
A: Tell the infinite guests to move one room over and put the gleeman in the first room.
4. An evil villain has captured your mother and lover and you can only save one. Who will you save?
A:
5. There is an island under the rule of a dictator. There is only one exit to the island that is guarded. The guard will let anyone with green eyes leave. All one hundred citizens of the island have green eyes but don’t know their own eye colour. There are no reflective surfaces and the citizens are not allowed to talk. You visit the island and the dictator allows you to make one announcement to the citizens, but you are not allowed to give them new information. What statement do you make to give the citizens the information to leave?
A: At least one of you has green eyes.
As the test came to a close, there were only twenty-five participants left. Roswaal leaned back comfortably. Erina waited like a proper lady. Chris fidgeted with her quill. Asher was staring at the main proctor. Thaddeus had woken from his sleep and stared dumbfoundedly at the paper in front of him.
“That’s time!” Ivan announced. “Hands up!”
All of us raised our hands up in unison. Except for Thaddeus who was delayed by several seconds.
Three of the participants stood up.
“Everyone, I would like you to meet our secret proctors—who knew the answers to the impossible-to-answer questions on your papers.”
The participants (was it fair to even call them that?) joined the proctors sitting by the side.
“Participants 577, 203, 91, 86, 501, 132, 511, 12, 427, 88, 552, 64, 416, 521, 322, and 314, you have failed to acquire five points and thus have failed. Please leave.”
The sixteen participants left rolling their eyes, shaking their heads, and cursing. Those were the ones that didn’t figure out the objective.
Ivan went up to Erina and patted her shoulder. “You were supposed to cheat by copying the hidden proctors’ answers. Not answer them legitimately.”
“D-do I fail?” she asked.
“You have five points. I don’t see how you failed.”
She didn’t cheat? How did she answer them with just her head?
Thaddeus raised his blank paper. “I didn’t write anything down, what does that mean for me?”
This idiot didn’t even write down his name?!
“Nya!” Chris reacted. “How hungover are you?”
Erina raised her hand. “Master Ivan, based on the rules, shouldn’t he pass? The rules state that everyone starts off with five points and a point is deducted for every wrong answer. If he never wrote down wrong answers, doesn’t he still technically have five points? The rules never stated that we had to answer the questions. We just needed five points to pass.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell him to leave.” Ivan laughed out loud. “This drunkard is a lucky bastard. That means—participant 44 Asher Kimblee, participant 67 Erina Tinsel, participant 339 Chris Lalatina, participant 456 Thaddeus Mobley, participant 603 Ilias Payne, and participant 610 Roswaal Morroh—you six advance to the final phase!”